In Tory stronghold of Provencher, an elusive frontrunner

Tucked in the southeastern corner of Manitoba, the federal riding of Provencher is one of the oldest in the province.

Formed in 1871, the largely rural riding has been represented by a mixture of Conservative, Liberal and Independent farmers, businessmen, and entrepreneurs. Its most memorable parliamentarian was Louis Riel, the rebellious Métis leader famously charged and hanged for treason in 1885. Riel held the riding as an independent from 1873 to 1875.

Today the riding – home to a number of Mennonite and Francophone communities – is considered a Conservative stronghold. In the 2011 election, former Public Safety Minister Vic Toews won the riding with 70 per cent of the vote. Toews resigned from politics in July, triggering the first byelection in the riding in more than a century.

Still, while recent polls show current Conservative candidate Ted Falk leading with more than 50 per cent support, Monday’s historic byelection is expected to be contentious.

“There’s more division,” said Green Party Candidate Janine Gibson when reached by telephone. “It is likely the Conservative candidate will get in, but people are quite angry he’s not attending town hall meetings.”

Falk has reportedly refused to participate in any of the three planned all-candidate forums. His absence has seen one of the debates cancelled, while the two others are set to go on without him next week. Falk has been president and chair of the Steinback Credit Union for 16 years and also owns his own construction company.

Multiple requests for comment from the Conservative candidate have yet to be answered.

Falk’s silence, and the ongoing antics in Ottawa, have frustrated many people in Provencher, Gibson said.

“People are very concerned about the disrespect for democracy and what seems to be the disrespect for ordinary people that they see coming from Ottawa,” the organic agriculture inspector explained. This is Gibson’s fourth time running for the party in Provencher.

It’s a sentiment shared by Liberal candidate Terry Hayward, who ran in 2011. A federal public servant – with a background in agriculture – for more than 30 years, Hayward said folks in Provencher are “tired of being ignored.”

“Everybody wants to talk,” he said. “Everybody wants to get their story out about some issues happening around them.” There have also been a number of complaints about federal funding favouring the southern part of the riding, he said.

NDP Candidate Natalie Courcelles Beaudry, Hayward and Gibson also told iPolitics the ongoing Senate scandal was still very much on the minds of riding residents.

“Obviously, the Senate is broad and everybody’s talking about that because it’s in the news, it’s in the media,” NDP Candidate Natalie Courcelles Beaudry said. “It’s definitely not something we brought on, but holy smokes that’s really everybody’s hot topic right now.”

Local and regional issues, though, are also making their way into doorstep chatter, the three said. Because of its size – Provencher spans more than 22,000 square kilometres – the riding is home to a number of industries, including agriculture, forestry, manufacturing, and health services.

And, while the riding still boasts a higher-than-average family income and a lower-than-average unemployment rate, some industries are struggling.

Multiple forest fires have devastated a once flourishing forestry industry, which was hit again with the closure of a large pulp and paper mill in the northern part of the riding. In the Red River region, past flooding has forced a number of people, many of whom are First Nations, to relocate to temporary housing.

Meanwhile, a lack of slaughter facilities and the ongoing country-of-origin labelling dispute have seen many hog producers shutter their barn doors. There are also concerns about future government protection of supply management, particularly from local dairy farmers. They’re worried about recent concessions for European cheese imports, Hayward explained.

Better francophone services are also being demanded, Beaudry said. A former provincial public servant and a mother of three young children, she is the only francophone candidate in the race.

“I feel the Harper government is cutting bilingual resources and francophone resources and [are] not even making it a priority, at all, that Canada be bilingual,” she said. A number of top government appointments for which candidates were not required to bilingual has made this quite clear, Beaudry added.

Pleas for better cellphone services in the southern half the riding – which is currently without any cell coverage – is also topping people’s wish lists, Beaudry said. In the past, the spotty coverage has made it difficult for emergency responders during times of forest fires and severe weather, she added.